April 2025 Book Review: Six Days in Bombay

Book by: Alka Joshi
Review by: Dr. Wendy Hooper-Meletes, Ed.D., owner of Litchfield Books

International bestselling author Alka Joshi draws readers deep into India at another time and place with Six Days in Bombay becoming her first standalone novel since the Jaipur Trilogy: The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris. A timely novel of friendship, identity and mystery inspired by a real historical woman.

Mira Novak is a relatable fictional character, an Indian woman considered to be one of the most important painters of 20th-century India. She’s flamboyant, sexually active, political, outspoken, talented and utterly charming. Her mother was Indian and her father was a Czech aristocrat. In this novel, the protagonist struggles with her identity: Sona is Anglo-Indian, the product of an English father and a Hindu mother where Eurasian children came to be seen as resented or prized. Sona and Mira share their half Indian identity and befriend each other with secrets and social engagements. Under mysterious circumstances surrounded by whispers of an unwanted pregnancy Mira leaves her life under the sun. Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with three of her favorite paintings she must deliver. Sona is torn. She sympathizes with India’s fight for independence from the British. At the same time, she takes advantage of her British blood-and exonerates herself for a crime that should have been reversed by a demonstration of being innocently convicted. Sona is beginning to be seen as the enemy.

Amidst these experiences, one reality becomes clear: women in India are not divided. They are each other’s strongest allies, accelerating change, breaking barriers and offering unwavering support in ways that contradict conventional narratives of division and struggle. This story explores the way women are viewed when they operate outside their accepted realm. Feminism in this era is marked by unique challenges of female characters and their interactions including suffrage and legal inequalities. From Bombay to Prague, Florence, Paris and London, join us on April 18, 2025 at Litchfield Country Club from 11-1pm to uncover the mystery behind a famous painter’s death.

Tickets can be purchased in-store or online.
www.litchfieldbooks.com/events